Stress across joints generally is a common cause of pain. Stress across the sacroiliac joint is a common source of lower back pain. Such sacroiliac joint stress, including sacroiliac joint disruptions (i.e., separations) and degenerative sacroiliitis (i.e. inflammation), can result from lumbar fusion, trauma, postpartum, heavy lifting, arthritis, or unknown causes. Sacroiliac joint fixation or arthrodesis is sometimes recommended for skeletally mature patients with severe, chronic sacroiliac joint pain or acute trauma in the sacroiliac joint.
Conventional solutions for stabilizing joints and relieving pain in joints typically include the insertion of an implant, such as a metal screw, rod or bar, laterally across the joint. However, conventional solutions can involve invasive surgical procedures. Furthermore, even more minimally invasive procedures have drawbacks. One drawback of conventional solutions for sacroiliac joint fixation is the inability to deliver materials, such as osteogenic, osteoconductive, other bone regenerative materials, antibiotics, steroids, and other joint treatment materials (i.e., for inflammation or infections), to the bones through implants and an implantation procedure that is minimally invasive. Another drawback of conventional implants for sacroiliac joint fixation is that they do not allow for bone growth into and through the implant for true fusion of the joint. Finally, conventional implantation solutions do not provide methods for delivering such joint stress treatment materials through the implant at a later time (i.e., post-implantation).
Thus, techniques for joint fusion without the limitations of conventional techniques are needed.